Match Report:

Andover 29 Bognor 36

It was a case of what might have been for Saxon Safety sponsored Andover as they let a half time lead go, to slip to their first defeat of the season.

The ‘All Blacks’ only had themselves to blame however as it was their own errors that undid them in the end.

Playing down the slope but against a strong wind Andover started slowly and for the first twenty minutes struggled to retain possession.

Bognor took the lead on 7 minutes with a converted try and only some stout defence stopped matters getting worse.

The Andover scrum, where James Reeder was prominent, held firm and the line out, where skipper CJ Feirn and Callum Hollinshead were excellent, provided enough possession for Andover to do better, but a series of misplaced passes and over ambitious offloads meant promising situations went begging.

Just as the home side seemed to have put things right however, disaster struck as powerful second row Jake Dixon was forced off with a knee injury after a scintillating break.

With youngster Jacob Demesi on in his place, Andover continued to come back into the game well.

Tom Erskine took advantage of a sleepy visiting defence to score at a ruck with Rich Retallick levelling with the conversion.

Andover suddenly smelled blood and poured forwards. From fine attack, Retallick fed Stan North who took out the midfield before offloading to Evan Roll to go over, again with Retallick adding the extras.

Bognor to their credit came straight back but Andover seemed to have them contained until a bad missed tackle allowed them the freedom of the Goodship to draw level.

Andover were still in the ascendency though and went back in front through a superbly taken try by hooker Callum Barber Starkey who danced through the defence to score.

Then just before half time Andover had a golden chance to perhaps break the Bognor resistance, but the final pass went straight into touch with the line begging and Andover had just a slender lead to take into the second half.

After the break Andover again started slowly and gave Bognor some good field position. Some excellent defence from Charlie Deavall kept them at bay however and when a fine break from the same player and Bryn Waite took Andover up the field, Retallick stretched the lead with another penalty. 

All was looking good but once again Andover failed to manage the game properly, perhaps being over ambitious in the conditions and Bognor scored a neat try to bring it back to within one point.

Andover brought on Sean Higgins for Waite to change their shape a little.

However, almost immediately the impressive Harvey Maloney was on the end of an unfortunate yellow card and Bognor took advantage with a further try and penalty.

Andover still looked the more likely to go on and win, but once again over ambition and a missed tackle did for them, as Bognor increased their lead further with a gift of a try.

Roll was then also yellow carded for ill discipline and Down to thirteen Andover looked doomed.

They fought hard however restricting the visitors to just a penalty and when restored to fifteen, they finally showed what could have been.

Toby Dixon and Reeder really got into the Bognor scrum and penalties pushed Andover to the corner.

Hollinshead rose, Andover drove and Roman Barton Knott crashed over to give Andover a bonus point, leaving Retallick to secure a second point with an unbelievable conversion.

Afterwards senior coach Craig Hodgson said ‘It was a frustrating day for all. We didn’t quite get our game management right in the conditions, probably trying to play to much expansive rugby before we’d earned the right. It was difficult out there today in the conditions, against a strong visiting side and the lads showed great character to dig out two bonus points at the end which maybe important going forward.

View Paul Campbells match images here.